Combined oil and gas rigs fell by 75 to 1,192, the lowest since the week ending December 31, 2009.

By drilling region, the biggest decline came from Texas' Permian shale basin, where 22 rigs were shut down, while 8 rigs were shut down in the Eagle Ford basin. By state, Texas saw 32 rigs shut down this week, followed by 7 in New Mexico and 5 in Colorado.

Last week, the number of oil rigs fell by 33 while the number of oil and gas rigs fell by 43.

Friday's rig data comes on the heels of the February jobs report, which showed that nonfarm payrolls grew by 295,000 in February as the unemployment rate fell to 5.5%. Jobs in the mining sector, however, which include oil and energy related jobs, fell by 9,000 in February.

The decline in oil rigs has been closely watched as the price of oil has tumbled, and at current levels, the decline in US oil rig count is about 43%; in January, Baker Hughes said the number of rigs in use has declined by 40%-60% during past oil downturns.